Rejection
by mimikohime
Summary: Hurt by Minamo's rejections and tormented by her own mind, Yukari is driven to seek relief in a shocking way. Yukari x Nyamo, Tomo x Yomi, Yukari x ...
1. Prologue

Thanks to Kiyohiko Azuma for creating Azumanga Daioh!

Prepare for a dark Azumanga fic with an... unusual pairing.

* * *

Prologue

_"Yukari, I told you. No! Stop it!"_

The words rang in the hurt woman's ears painfully. Yukari's heart was heavy with disappointment. True, they had both decided that a breakup would save them both the embarrassment of having one of their overly-inquisitive students from finding out, but she couldn't help it. What was the big deal if they _were_ together, anyway?

Besides, Yukari missed Nyamo, badly. She acted like her usual self around others, but couldn't her friend see the longing in her eyes? Or did she simply decide to ignore it?

_Time heals all wounds? I think not._

Whatever the case was, Nyamo was firm with her. This was the sixth time she had rejected her advances, more if Yukari's moments of weakness in the summer of that fateful separating were counted. Tearfully, the English teacher looked up at the starry skies, wondering,_ praying_, as she had done for many nights, hoping that her silent cries would be answered. Then she sighed, entering her parents' house.

Nothing ever happened. Nothing ever changed. Nyamo never changed- she was as beautiful and idiotic as ever... Perhaps that was her charm. Her terrible, terrible charm... more powerful than anything Yukari could ever blackmail her with. She was chained to the lovely Minamo with no means of escape.

Yukari's thoughts haunted her during the night. Unable to sleep, she turned on the light and picked up a framed picture of Nyamo and herself. Both smiled, though Nyamo's was considerably softer than Yukari's wide grin. Yukari knew that they had been dating in secret at the time. Suddenly, the already agitated woman's temper flared and she threw the nostalgic picture across the room with a rather loud growl of anger.

For a moment, she was surprised at herself, then slightly worried that she woke someone up. However, that feeling faded very fast when she realized that she'd probably damaged the frame of her precious memory. A quiet curse escaped her lips and she scrambled toward the picture to check out the damage.

A large crack ran down between Nyamo and Yukari. She blinked. The crack was actually at the corner of the glass.

_I'm losing it._

Yukari gave her head a little shake and closed her eyes, placing the picture back on the desk.


	2. I: Unnoticed

This took a little while, sorry to anyone who was waiting!

Kiyohiko Azuma is the genius that created Azumanga Daioh.

* * *

Tomo loved "surprise sleepovers", even more so when she was rewarded with Yomi's frustrated face. Ah, but she could see it- certainly, that rage was just her friend's way of expressing her undying love and affection.

Yomi was peacefully asleep. Sometime in the a.m., Tomo had finally let her sleep, and by then, the other girl was exhausted and probably very grateful for the break. But Tomo couldn't help it if her energy bars were constantly full- for a little while after Yomi had started snoring softly, attempts were made to mess around with Yomi's dreams and make her talk in her sleep. Sadly, there was no evidence that Tomo's efforts had any effect, so she had snuggled up to the taller girl and fell asleep to the lullaby of her heartbeat.

As always, Tomo was awake first. Alarmed at first that she wasn't in her own bed, the girl was about to let out an ear-splitting scream before she realized where she was, and decided that she might not want to waste the quiet morning like that after all. Besides, Yomi looked so comfortable there, like she was having a pleasant dream. Her long hair was messy from sleep, or perhaps the forced roughhousing with Tomo. The sunlight hit the usually bespectacled girl at a perfect angle, her features softly illuminated. Tomo felt as if her heart were going to burst.

"WAKEY WAKEY MA BELLE YOMI!"

And so, off went Yomi's alarm clock, in French for a change. Yomi squinted her eyes at the other girl, who was practically jumping on the bed probably at the excitement of starting a brand new day. Lovely. She closed her eyes just as Tomo threw herself on top of her, yelling about waking up in as many other languages as she could (just in Japanese, if you don't count the made up words). Yomi groaned. "Yeah, yeah, just a minute."

The smarter girl began to put on her uniform when she realized that Tomo was staring. First argument of the day. With only one button on her pajamas undone, she turned to her friend, who didn't seem to have a pinch of shame in her body. "What?" Yomi sighed deeply. _Here we go._ "You know exactly what. Don't watch me." Tomo rolled on the bed, laughing at her self-consciousness, causing Yomi to roll her eyes.

"How would you like it if I watched you while you changed?" Tomo jumped to her feet, unfazed by the question. "Dunno, let's find out," she said, beginning to undo her clothes. "I put my uniform over here, right?" Yomi was putting a lot of effort into not mentioning the surprise sleepovers- discussing something like that with Tomo could only lead to disaster. "_Rhetorical_ question Tomo. I don't actually want you to strip, if you haven't noticed." Her friend smiled brightly. "Sure ya do!"

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Yukari was amazed by the sight of Nyamo at her door, picking her up as usual despite the other night. Her eyes still half-closed from sleep, she blinked twice and stumbled out. "Yo." Minamo raised an eyebrow at Yukari's unkempt hair and attitude problem- not that it wasn't unusual, and as soon as the gym teacher opened her mouth, Yukari knew she was in for an earful. Luckily, Yukari managed to drown out her speech by thinking of other things- like Nyamo, interestingly enough.

Nyamo paused, possibly to see if her friend was listening. Yukari looked at her with one eye and then said, half-bitterly, "You know, if you'd be nice to people instead of nag them, men might like you better." The English teacher ignored the next speech, knowing that what she was was completely worth it. At school, Nyamo stomped off as quickly as she could, but she would get no apology from Yukari, who went up to her classroom just as fast.

Enter Tomo Takino and Koyomi Mizuhara, the best of friends, though one refused to admit it. _Now who do these two remind you of?_ Yukari had a sneaking suspicion that their relationship was similar to hers and Nyamo's- possibly better, and growing stronger. Yukari watched the pair- her narrowed eyes on Yomi, in particular.

Putting appearance and age aside, she was exactly like Minamo Kurosawa. That snarky attitude, the way she looked at her friend, her holier-than-thou way of talking, all the way down to her natural beauty. Look at that- she didn't even notice Yukari watching her, just like Nyamo never noticed stares from those damned perverts at the bar. The more she thought about it, the more the teacher's resentment towards the innocent students grew. Irritably, she gripped her desk, hating it, hating that there was virtually no difference between them, except that she couldn't-

"Miss Yukari?"

Chiyo, the teacher realized, must have been calling her a couple of times. And also, by the look on the girl's face, Yukari didn't look very friendly at the moment. She looked as if she was ready to run behind Sakaki, who had just entered the room. "Huh," she grunted, turning her attention the terrified child. "What is it?"

"Are... are you okay?"

An idea had been planted in Yukari's head.

"I'm fine, Chiyosuke."


	3. II: Detention

Love Kiyohiko Azuma for creating Azumanga Daioh.

* * *

Her English teacher was moodier than usual that day, Yomi noticed. However, while bad-tempered and excitable, Yukari was most definitely _not_ out to get her, unlike the knuckleheads seemed to be. Those three could tick her off without even trying. Still, Yukari seemed to insist on calling on her for all the difficult questions, much to the smart girl's dismay. Indeed, Yomi prided herself on her intelligence, but that was no reason to pick on her for _all_ the hard ones, especially when Chiyo was practically hopping out of her seat to try to save her.

It was like the teacher got sadistic pleasure from watching her squirm and struggle for the answer. While she glowered down at Yomi, the girl could have sworn she saw a smirk playing on her face, effectively causing her to lose her train of thought. "Don't know? Maybe you should have concentrated harder on your homework."

Chiyo continued to bounce in her seat to help Yomi, waving her arm at Yukari, who apparently took no notice. Tomo did nothing helpful. "Yeah, Yomi, you should study instead of listening to your own diet-" The taller girl's face turned red as she screamed at the top of her lungs (to drown Tomo out), "SHUT UP, YOU GOD DAMNED MORON!"

Thankfully, the bell rang before Yukari could do anything to punish either of them, and she leaned forward onto her desk in relief (partially that the torturous class was over, and partially that no one seemed to hear what Tomo said). _Done_. "Koyomi Mizuhara." All too used to being called "Yomi", it took a moment for the girl to realize that Yukari was calling her.

She looked up, and the first thing she noticed was the funny glint in the teacher's eyes. Somewhat alarmed, she sat up straight. "W-what is it?" Was she in trouble for earlier?

"I want you to stay behind after class. Alone." And then Yukari walked off, without an explanation. As soon as the woman left the room, Tomo dutifully announced as loudly as possible, "YOMI GOT DETENTION." The taller girl sighed and gave her so-called friend a swift whack on the head- the only language Tomo understood.

Well, at least the day couldn't possibly get any worse.

* * *

"You wanted to see me?"

It was her first detention- Yomi blamed Tomo completely. If she hadn't insisted on sleeping over and distracting her, perhaps she would have been able to figure out and remember her English properly. That did it- no more sleepovers when she had too much homework.

_Yeah, right._ Tomo would probably stop listening at "no".

* * *

_"What? Yomi in trouble? U-unbelievable!" Nyamo seemed shocked that the lazy Yukari was giving out detention- and to Yomi, of all people! Yukari nodded. "Unfortunately, she decided to interrupt class, and failed to do her homework properly," she exaggerated, staring Nyamo straight in the eye for effect. "I couldn't believe what had gotten into her." At this, the other teacher looked like she became suspicious- maybe Yukari had accidentally overdone her acting. However, she didn't object, and at least she had a reason not to listen to Yukari's constant complaints about her driving._

It had taken a long time for everyone to clear out- as an extra precaution, Yukari had even checked that Nyamo was outside. However relieved she was at not having to give Yukari a ride, she seemed to feel guilty about leaving her behind, and stayed to wait, cleaning out the gym equipment with some of her students (and Tomo, who wanted to wait for Yomi).

The teacher nodded, standing up from her desk and beginning to walk toward Yomi, who stood there as if she had done nothing wrong. _The little bitch_- there were too many things she was doing wrong, even without realizing it.

It was like staring at a young Nyamo. That nervous, even a little frightened expression was one that she had seen before- both inside her dreams and out. Yomi- she was a good girl, always did what she was told, even when she knew that she was right. Always relied on and looked up to by her classmates, but never resisted authority. Just like _her_. It was all too easy.

Yukari's steps carried her behind Yomi, and there, she stopped.


	4. III: Pressure

I know, I know, I haven't worked on this for a _really_ long time. I meant to, but other things got in the way. Today, I found some inspiration and decided to at least finish this chapter. I can't make any promises, but I will _try_ to conclude this story at some point. I don't own Azumanga Daioh, of course.

* * *

Standing there uncomfortably, Yomi allowed her teacher to walk behind her, unsure of if she should turn to face the woman or not. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and the girl could not figure out why- after all, Yukari was very near part of their "gang".

_Stop._

There was something very wrong here- the building tension in her gut didn't match up with her healthy lunch. There should not be anything wrong here, other than the fact that it was her standing in front of Yukari and not Tomo. Despite this logical reasoning, the irrational feeling remained, taking the additional forms of a pounding heart and a shiver down her spine- did the temperature suddenly drop about ten degrees? The hallway outside was awfully quiet, and the outside shouting suddenly seemed distant. But what did that matter? She was in detention with her homeroom teacher, not locked in the room with a murderer.

Behind her, Yomi could hear Yukari breathing deeply, the only noise in the silence besides her own heart, which was nearly deafening. Realizing she had been holding her breath, the girl slowly let it go.

"Miss Mizuhara."

Unable to stand the pressure anymore, the girl turned around, and immediately wished she had. not

While, in reality, Yomi was around the same height, if slightly taller than her teacher, she suddenly felt very small under Yukari's gaze. Those cold eyes had an unmistakable predatory glint. Yomi hoped she was only imagining it, or that she was simply cracking under the pressure of her first detention. _That... that must be it..._

Right?

Yukari stepped forward, a position much too close for a student and teacher to be in, and Yomi felt all the color drain out of her face. "Miss..." She tried to find the words for the situation, but how could she answer that face? Yukari did not look like she was listening to her anyway. In fact, Yomi could have sworn that she saw the corner of the woman's lips twitch upward on one side. Somehow, it did not seem like this was about homework anymore.

Carefully, Yomi stepped back, and Yukari stepped forward, this time pressing their lips together- but not in a gently or even excessively aggressive way. This kiss was eerily still- both Yomi and Yukari's eyes were open. Shock stared into concentrated emptiness. It was as if Yukari was not thinking, but had set an undiscovered part of herself loose on Yomi.

After a moment, Yukari lifted her lips off Yomi's. When the girl did not move, paralyzed, almost hesitantly, one of Yukari's arms slid around Yomi's waist and pulled her closer. Frightened, the girl gave a awkward jump, almost yelling before Yukari covered her mouth. "Don't panic," the teacher growled softly, placing her head on the crook of the young lady's neck. Just a little while.

Yukari moved her hand off Yomi's mouth slowly, making sure she did not scream. _Nyamo,_ she thought, repeatedly. _Nyamo. This is Nyamo._

It was not the same- but why? In personality, at least, there was no avoiding that her friend and her student were almost identical, so it should not matter which one she was with. At least, that was what Yukari tried to convince herself, but another side of her mind argued for sanity. She let her nails dig into Yomi's waist angrily- she was not Nyamo, as much as Yukari wished she would be.

She felt Yomi struggle out of her grip, but hardly cared, even as the young girl dashed out the door.


End file.
